The Tao of Chance — Tom Hawks

Sheriff Chance Colt abruptly retires and then wanders off into the Santa Rita Mountains after his wife, Sarah, is murdered during a school shooting. It is his guilt and shame that force the sheriff to escape the heartbreak of the civilized world.

When Chance leaves his job, his home, and his friends behind, he is not sure how things will end for him: he might become the Buddhist mountain man that he'd long dreamed of becoming, or he might take his life and exit the world on his own terms.

After several nights of battling nightmares and negative thoughts, Chance believes that it is time for him to exit the world, but several unexpected visitors interrupt him, including one of his spirit guides: Two Eagle, the Indian medicine man.

Nine months pass before Chance is ready to return to civilization. After making it back home to Santa Cruz County, Arizona, Chance reclaims his job and his home, which his friend Acting Sheriff Alexis Montoya has been looking after for him. Besides keeping his seat warm at work, Alexis has also cared for one of Chance's horses as well as his dog, William Shakespeare.

Once Chance gets his job back, he returns to the perils of law enforcement near the volatile international border. While Chance is settling back into his home life, he and Alexis develop a new intimacy that takes them beyond their long-term friendship.

The Tao of Chance is a modern-day American Western novel with a unique, spiritual and philosophical twist. It is a sort of Wyatt Earp meets Jeremiah Johnson meets the Buddha meets the legendary Lakota Sioux warrior Crazy Horse kind of tale and a journey through the life and mind of a very complex yet decidedly simple Western Lawman.